My wife, who loves to host and listen in on games but hates playing them (strange and wonderful at the same time) is very interested in scribing for a game of Universalis I'm trying to set up for Sundays in September. We'd be passing around cue-cards for elements, but she'd be keeping track of any facts that were in play and of course any Tenets.
Rob (Valvorik on these boards) suggested that we use a rule gimmick to allow her to challenge things that didn't jive with the record of the game so far, possibly in the form of coins for her purposes but not control or narration. She seems interested in that level of participation, basically acting as a kind of "lore keeper" for the game. Any suggestions from experienced Universalis players on the way this gimmick should work?
Hmmm. Sounds to me like she's just a player who adds nothing to each scene. The simplest gimmick I can think of is to just say that she's on autopass (play skips her going around the table), but can interrupt for free at any time to make challenges. This player gets refreshment like everyone else, but doesn't purchase things in the story, so they won't run out of Coins likely.
Seems simple enough.
Mike
One other thing: My wife could be the keeper of secrets if we had some kind of secret rules.
Sure, sounds like fun. Especially for her, who gets to see the secrets. What's interesting is that she can then challenge any new secret that violates another established secret... secretly. This is the problem with secrets in Universalis, that they may well contradict each other.
Mike